A Ferrofluidic Actuator Governed by AC Fields

In this paper an actuator realized with a ferrofluidic mass in a 100 μm channel is presented. The mass movement is controlled by exploiting the sweeping of phase lag between two orthogonal AC magnetic fields. The realization of actuators with no moving parts allows high reliability and scalability of the device. The proposed architecture allows for a non invasive implementation into existing pipes (such as veins in a visionary context, etc.) by injecting a single drop of ferrofluid and plugging a driving system.